metabolize proteins and carbohydrates. Vitamin B1 is also essential for helping to improve the body's digestion process, and normalize the appetite too.

When someone is deficient in this vitamin, they can experience mental confusion and memory loss, become emotional and irritable, have numb hands and feet, have shortness of breath, and have excessive fatique among other things.

Vitamin B2 is Riboflavin, and it is said to be the most common vitamin deficiency in Americans today. Vitamin B2 is called the youth vitamin though, because it helps you have healthier skin, hair and nails. It also helps your body cope with stress, helps with both growth and reproduction, helps your body absorb and use iron, and helps your body metabolize fats, protein, and carbohydrates. This vitamin also has properties which help prevent cancer from growing.

There are many symptoms which can be indicative of Vitamin B2 deficiency, and these include fatique or sluggishness, cracks around the mouth, scales on the nose, face or earlobes, broken blood vessel lines on the cheeks and nose, loss of hair and baldness, dizziness, trembling, depression, and sensitivity to light.

Milk, whole grains, egg yolks, yogurt, organ meats such as kidneys, liver and heart, cheese, nuts, and leafy vegetables are just a few of the natural food sources which give you Vitamin B2 though. Herbal sources include the same as those noted for Vitamin B1 above.

In fact, most of the essential B vitamins can often be gotten from one of several herbal sources. Alfalfa is an excellent source of many B vitamins as well as other essential nutrients your body needs. Garlic often provides much of these vitamins too, but possible the best source of the most B vitamins at once is Kelp. This herb is packed with a large number of the B vitamins in addition to iron, potassium, and more. This powerhouse of B vitamins is why Kelp is often used for hair, skin and nail problems or health maintenance.